"There is a time That stands still When the needle breaks And vibrates the frequency of our death." From the song "Tepid" by Primitive Man

There certainly are bands that come up every now and then that defy definition, genre and every notion that you have or had about them before you began listening, and that is the band that you see above. Show of Bedlam hails from Montreal and they get their name after the St. Mary of Bethlehem insane asylum in London. Not only does their name send shivers up your spine, but their music does as well. Transfiguration is the name of their newest full length release and Show of Bedlam packs in seven horrifying and scarring tracks for you to stew in.

Show of Bedlam doesn’t sound like any other band that is out there right now. These guys and lady are definitely in a class of their own as they may have created a completely separate class from everyone else. Their music isn’t easily describable nor is it easy to pigeonhole these genre benders. Show of Bedlam likes to skip around the spectrum of metal genres quite a bit all throughout this release as they pepper you with walls of noise from doom, sludge, noise metal, punk and certain industrial elements. They weave all of these and more together to create a psychotic, yet intoxicating and wonderful listen.

Transfiguration has a great ability to draw you in with its unique, haunting and incredibly dark sound. Show of Bedlam does a great job of sucking you in and taking you on an incredibly harrowing and mind bending ride. Transfiguration hits you like a truck once you begin listening as it assaults you from all sides with a heavy, bone shattering metallic blitzkrieg. Each song lurches, twist and caves skulls with heavy, sludge filled riffs, solid acrobatic drumming, buzzing bass lines and haunting vocals that switch from spectral cleans to roaring gritty screams.

While the musicianship certainly is heavy the atmosphere is incredibly suffocating and bleak. Once you begin listening you have nowhere to go as it envelopes you and swallows you whole crushing and crumbling your bones. Not only is the music itself very captivating and incredibly bewitching, but the atmosphere is as well. Each minute of this release is damning and incredibly petrifying and heavy all at the same time which provides you with an incredibly diverse, mind boggling and all around excellent listen.

Transfiguration has to be one of the most memorable and captivating releases so far this year.

This release will be out through Sentient Ruin Laboratories May 12, 2017.

You can pre-order Transfiguration right here and off of Sentient Ruin’s Bandcamp.